Walker Sands Expands Leadership Team with Four New Partners

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Public relations and digital marketing agency promotes four internal veterans to serve as company partners

From left: Andrew Cross, John Fairley, Dave Parro and Will Kruisbrink

“As we continue to grow as a company, we value the importance of fostering a competitive learning environment where employees have abundant opportunities to advance their careers.” - Mike Santoro, President, Walker Sands

Chicago (PRWEB)May 05, 2015

Walker Sands, a full-service public relations and digital marketing firm for B2B and technology companies, has appointed four company veterans as partners. Senior Account Directors Andrew Cross, Will Kruisbrink and Dave Parro, and Vice President of Digital Services John Fairley join longtime partners Ken Gaebler, Ellen Hanson and Mike Santoro.

“All four new partners have extensive leadership experience at Walker Sands and support our core values of learning, supporting and getting things done,” said Mike Santoro, president of Walker Sands. “As we continue to grow as a company, we value the importance of fostering a competitive learning environment where employees have abundant opportunities to advance their careers.”

The four newly appointed partners have played vital roles in expanding their respective company practice areas. Cross leads the financial technology, electronics and growth-stage practice areas at Walker Sands and serves as the PR mentor to the Techstars Chicago program. Kruisbrink leads the professional services and enterprise software practice areas, which serves several top cloud enterprise software solutions in tax, ERP and sync and share. Parro leads the marketing technology and retail technology practice areas and served as the company thought leader on the Walker Sands 2015 Future of Retail Study.

Fairley brings more than 20 years of experience to his role as the strategic architect and technical director of Walker Sands Digital’s Web and social media offerings. Under his leadership, Walker Sands has developed an industry-leading Web development process based on five principles – design, business alignment, maintenance, SEO and affordability.

“Appointing senior-level managers from both Walker Sands Digital and the Walker Sands public relations team to partner roles validates our continued commitment to the digital ecosystem model,” said Santoro. “This model is a significant driver of our recent growth and focuses on providing a mix of earned, owned and paid media to our clients. Andrew, Will, Dave and John have a full understanding of the digital ecosystem, from articulating the model in the sales process to executing integrated social media, search and public relations strategies.”

Leveraging the digital ecosystem model, Walker Sands experienced its best year to date in 2014, with highlights including a move to a new high-rise office, company headcount approaching nearly 55 full-time digital and public relations professionals and inclusion on the Inc. 500|5000 for the second consecutive year.

About Walker Sands:
Walker Sands is a public relations and digital marketing agency for technology and business-to-business companies. With offices in Chicago and San Francisco, Walker Sands was founded in 2001 to provide data-driven marketing support for a wide array of companies with the business mission of providing best-in-class communications counsel and services. Walker Sands is a two-time Inc. 5000 Honoree and has received several other industry-specific awards, such as PRSA Skylines, Hermes and PR Daily, among others. To learn more, visit http://www.walkersands.com.